Tips and Tricks

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a very expansive game with many details that can often be overlooked, especially early on in the game. Here are several Tips and Tricks to help you out in your adventures across the land in Thedas.

Know an awesome tip or trick that's not listed here? Click the EDIT and add it to the page!

You can obtain a Mount very early on in the game if you are observant and make sure to investigate Side Quests. One of the first you'll hear about upon arriving in the Hinterlands is the Master of Horses quest, located in the far West of the map. Simply talking to the Horsemaster and agreeing to help make the road safe for his horses will reward you with your very own mount: A Fereldan Forder - so don't miss out!

There is really no need to get a mount early in the game. The only area where a mount is useful is the "Hissing Wastes" because it is relatively barren. For the rest of the game, a mount will be a hindrance because you'll either need to get off every 20 seconds to pick something up or miss a lot of resources/codexes etc.

Some Astrarium star puzzles can be confusing and difficult to solve. But with a bit of math, you can get a leg up on the puzzle. Look at the completed puzzle in the bottom left. If any of the star points an odd number of paths, there will always be one more to balance things out. What this means is that you will always start on one of these points, and end on the other. If there are only stars with an even number of paths, you can start at any point, but you will have to finish at that same point.

It's easy to forget that you can trigger a search pulse by pressing down on the left control stick - as it's only mentioned briefly in the game. By using the search button, any interactive items in the area will ping and have an orange outline. If you see your compass start to pulse, hitting the search button will indicate the direction of hidden items, and will reveal them once you are close enough.

Not only can you find recipes to make new potions to put on your belt - but you can also upgrade a potions effectiveness by finding the Upgrade Potion table at the Apothecary in Haven or Skyhold. You can upgrade healing effectiveness, damage for grenades, and much more! Don't forget that each character has their own belt to be personalized.

To upgrade your base of operations, you'll have to find quarry points and logging camps all over Thedas. They are also unmarked on your map, which can make finding them a hassle. However, you can use your Inquisition Perks to buy the Forward Scouts Perk that will reveal not only all points of interest, but locations of logging camps and quarries on the map.

Don't focus all of your attention just on your Inquisitor, as every character has their own equipment, skills, and more. Make sure to check on their gear and skills often, and give them the best they can have, or swap out items when using different party members. Don't forget that the only bow Varric can use is his crossbow, Bianca, but it can be modified to be as powerful as other bows.

While you can only fully close a Rift once all enemies have been defeated, you can still command your Inquisitor to disrupt the Rift while enemies are still coming out. If your Inquisitor is not interrupted, you can deal major damage to the Rift, and damage other enemies on screen, providing a powerful boost to your attack. In addition, when you see new enemies forming, you can cast spells like Dispel to wipe them out early on.

Often times during conversation you might find that your character can flirt with other party members and even characters not part of your companions - indicated by a heart icon. Beware - not every character can be romanced, and flirting will get you nowhere...unless you just love to flirt. For a list of those you CAN romance, check out our guide here.

Go to the War Table whenever you can to send your Advisors on Missions While you fight and quest, your advisors can complete other tasks to earn you money, rewards, and more. With 3 advisors total, you can have all three of them doing separate missions. (If you're not into waiting for hours for your missions to complete, you can always go into your PS4 system settings and adjust the system clock manually. This can be done supprisingly fast since there is no need to back out of any menus!)

You don't always have to go on quests and make big decisions to get Inquisition Power and Influence. There is a merchant who stays with the other merchants in Skyhold who sells a different kind of item. He will sell you odd items like treaties and the like that will actually increase your influence or power, which is a good alternative if you have the money.

Dragon Age: Inquisition features the ability to respec a character's abilities and skills. To do so, you must approach the totem that can be found near the forging equipment. You can buy your first respec necklace for only 1 gold, although subsequent purchases will cost far more gold. With the necklace, simply equip it on the chosen character to refund their ability points - which is highly useful once you've unlocked a character's specialization.

Vivienne's Knight Enchanter ability allows pretty her to maul any dragon, eating through the beast's barrier and shield with your new melee attacks give you huge amounts of barrier to yourself. Plus you can do around 800 damage per attack depending on the weapon you've equipped.

Since the game limits the amount of healing that can be done, using Guard and Barrier are key to survival in most tough fights. Mages excel at generating Barrier for the party, while warriors excel at generating Guard. However, with specialized weapons/armor the entire party can generate their own Guard and gain access to talents outside of their class entirely. This is why the best armor/weapons in the game aren't found, they are crafted.

Any character can generate their own Guard with each hit of their weapon simply by adding Fade-touched Silverite or Obsidian to their mastercrafted weapon/armor. Further defense can be added by utilizing materials that give a chance to cast Walking Fortress or Fade Cloak on hit, among other possibilities.

This can turn squishy rogues into hardened killers that generate guard each hit and gain invulnerability constantly throughout a battle. Knight Enchanters become practically invincible as they can easily generate guard AND barrier with each hit as well as gain access to two invulnerability spells in Fade Cloak and Walking Fortress.